Air travel to and from Malta remains in the pandemic doldrums, with the number of passengers travelling through the airport in January down 62 per cent when compared to January 2020. 

Data compiled by Malta International Airport showed that just over 55 per cent of plane seats available on flights to and from Malta that month were occupied. 

Travel across Europe was severely disrupted at the turn of the year by a raft of new restrictions introduced to combat the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. 

MIA said it expects the rest of February and March to be “challenging”, though it said eased measures in several countries would help gradually restore normality. 

Comparing travel figures in January of the past four years. Image: MIA

A total of 159,357 passengers moved through MIA in January – an increase of more than fourfold over the record lows registered in January 2021, but significantly lower than the 418,000 registered in 2020.  

Italy, the UK, Poland, Germany and France were the top markets that month, but of those, only Poland’s passenger numbers represented an increase from figures in 2020. 

MIA said that Poland’s growth was especially heartening, as it was the first time it outperformed Germany and France. “Poland’s excellent performance stemmed from the operation of the Warsaw-Modlin route in January and strong seat load factors registered across Malta International Airport’s seven Polish routes,” it said. 

MIA reiterated its calls for Malta to adhere to EU-wide rules on COVID-19 vaccine certificate expiry dates. Malta is enforcing stricter rules on its citizens than required by an EU-wide agreement. 

Airports Council International (ACI) and the International Air Transport Association have both urged five countries, including Malta, to abandon “unnecessary and damaging restrictions” and align their rules with those of the common EU framework.